"I really did want to tell you, my dear," he said with genial sorrow that Eren distrusted thoroughly.
"I know that you couldn't," Lucy said. "I've been told about the griffin magic that keeps you from talking about it."
"But you don't have any such magic on you," her uncle said, and Eren could all but see the gears turning in his head.
"No," Lucy said. She tilted her head back. "Which means I can tell whoever I like."
"Very interesting." Rodric hesitated, tapping the papers in his hand.
"Get on with it," Eren growled.
Lucy got up from her chair and came over to the desk, with Eren behind her like a lurking shadow. Her uncle spread the papers on the desk, and Lucy rested a hand on it to keep her balance when the deck lurched underfoot.
"I'm going to give you half my parents' money," she said. "And the day-to-day running of the company can be yours."
"Half wasn't the deal."
"I don't care. I know you wanted it all, but half is what I'm offering. You see, Uncle, I've come to realize that my parents' legacy isn't the company. It's me. It's who I am, and who I love, and the life I live. But that still doesn't mean I'm going to let you walk away with everything they built."
She worked for a little while, making notes and annotations on the papers. Rodric's eyebrows went up as he watched her, impressed. Meanwhile, Eren kept a close eye on him.
"I must say, dear, I wasn't expecting you to know so much about business law."
"I have an accounting degree," Lucy said, her voice clipped. "I studied business. But of course, you never paid enough attention to me to know that. All you ever wanted from me was my money."
"What a terrible thing to say to your very own uncle."
Eren growled low in his throat.
Lucy turned to look at Rodric. "I can't help being blood relatives with you. I'm not going to hurt you. But Eren's family has welcomed me. They'rekindto me."
"You're worth it," Eren said. "If he can't see that, then he's an idiot."
Lucy smiled a little. "See? This is what I mean. They have my back. They're my family now."
Rodric craned to see what she was writing on the papers. "And so you've found a new family and you think you get to dictate terms to me?"
"I absolutely do. It'smycompany. And I'm being more than generous with you. I don't want the company, I just want enough money not to have to worry. You can run it into the ground if you want, I'll take a nice buy-out settlement, and everyone gets to be happy."
She scribbled her signature in a few places and then shoved the papers toward Rodric. "There, look it over and see if that's agreeable to you."
Rodric barely glanced at the papers before scrawling a signature. Eren tensed a little; he didn't trust this easy capitulation. He would have felt better about it if Rodric had put up a fight.
"You're right, that is very generous," Rodric remarked. "And this is it for us, then? My own beloved niece on the other side of the world?"
"It's none of your business where I go or what I do. I wouldn't mind staying in touch, if you want to." She hesitated slightly. "I have a lot of questions. I wish we'd been able to talk more about the ... the griffin thing when I was younger. For example, I never got to ask if you can ..."
She paused.
"If I can what?" Rodric asked. His voice was gentle.
Eren trusted this even less.Don't listen to a word he says, Lucy! This guy is planning to screw you over.
"There's a ... power, that I have," Lucy said. She was looking down at her hands, where she had Rodric's expensive gold-and-black fountain pen gripped loosely between her fingers. "I can make myself—um—invisible, for short periods of time."
"All griffins have a power of some kind," Rodric said. "I never knew you had one. Sothat'show you escaped. I did wonder."
Lucy looked up, her expressive face registering surprise and delight. "We all have powers? Really? What about you and my dad? What was his? What's yours?"